A Summoner's Story
by Amonial
Summary: The League of Legends isn't always about Champions. Summoners are as, if not more, important than Champions. They are the "warriors that built this town from dust". Helen, one of the 10% girls who are Summoners in the League, faces an unusual adventure and goes through unexpected changes in her life where she has to face her bitter past again.
1. Chapter 1

The League of Legends is an institute that requires two kinds of participants in order for it to work as intended. The first kind, the Champions, are the ones who do the actual fighting on the battlegrounds, the Fields of Justice. They consist of very powerful or very eager individuals who come there for training or for revenge. Soon the 120th Champion will make its way to the grounds. The second group, far more numerous than the Champions, are the Summoners. They control the Champions on the Fields, and it is for them, the weaker people wishing to achieve glory without having to risk their lives, that the League had been founded in the first place. The Summoners use a ranking system of different tiers to show their prowess in battle. Bronze for the inexperienced, up to Diamond for the outstanding, with each tier divided in 5 subcategories. Some had indeed gathered mountainous fortune through the League and had gained a division of their own, Challenger, but for one of them, things weren't really going her way.

Her name was Helen and she was currently fighting a losing battle. Having started a 5v5 match on the League's oldest and most celebrated Field, Summoner's Rift, on her last promotion match from Bronze to Silver with two lost and two won. Sadly, her team wasn't doing well. She was controlling a rather recent addition to the League's Champions, Jinx, the Loose Cannon. The rest of her team consisted of Darius (top laner), Ezreal (mid laner), Warwick (jungler) and Morgana (support). To begin with, the match seemed a good thing, with Jinx her favorite champion. Sadly, the enemy team turned out to have the late game with them (Mordekaiser top, Swain mid, Wukong jungle, Caitlyn adc and Soraka support) and her team hadn't responded kindly to the numerous lost team fights.

Morgana and Jinx won their lane quite easily, but Darius, while holding his ground against Mordekaiser by himself, ended up dying to Wukong ganks often (trading one for one most of the time, it should be said). Ezreal, however ended up dying to Swain with nothing to show for it, and Warwick didn't help much. Swain allowed the rest of his team to get kills on Helen's, basically putting the enemy miles ahead of her team. They had fallen back to split pushing after ther mid inhibitor fell. It should be said that Ezreal and Warwick were ready to surrender at 20 minutes into the game.

It should be said that Ezreal and Warwick were ready to surrender at 20 minutes into the game, but Helen snapped them out of it through Jinx.

"Oh, no you don't", Jinx said, "I'm doing well. I want to see more stuff blow up."

"Oh so you want it to be a bigger scandal?", Ezreal protested, with his Summoner's blue eyes glaring at Jinx, indicating it was his Summoner now speaking through him, "Look at the map. Our Nexus is exposed since half an hour. We're as good as lost. We won't survive another push. There's no point in wasting time."

Helen started speaking through Jinx, turning Jinx' pink eyes into her own green ones. She walked towards Ezreal, while saying: "**You** fed Swain. Then Swain started roaming and gave kills to his fellow laners, and we were _SUPPOSED_ to have an awake jungler. None of us could stand up to him, so because of _you_ their whole team is fed." She paused to let her message sink in, then said menacingly, Jinx's face inches from Ezreal's: "**You** got us in this mess, you're going to help try.. No, you _**WILL**_ help get us out until the very end."

"But... what's the point of fighting if we're going to lose in the end...", Ezreal stuttered in a feeble attempt to come up with a counterargument.

Helen was not impressed. "For the love of...where's your sense of honor, Summoner? We fight. We might even lose. But NEVER surrender."

Darius, quite impressed, was there when Helen gave her team this scolding/pep talk. And for a second, his dark, black eyes met met the deep green color of Helen's eyes, before they flashed back to the ordinary pink of Jinx's eyes.

"Okay, let's go kill them. I'm itching for a fight." Jinx's maniacal old self had been returned to her.

After that, Ezreal kept complaining but never launched another surrender vote, and if Warwick had any reservations, he kept them to himself. As the late game arrived and they started losing more and more teamfights, anger and frustration reared their heads. The Summoners controlling Warwick, Morgana and Ezreal were arguing extremely loudly and viciously, losing their focus on the game. The most recent team fight had left them in shambles, where only Darius and her had managed to escape death by a mere sliver of health. The match had lasted for over an hour and respawn timers were up to 80 seconds. Having won a three-for-zero exchange, the enemy team decided to kill the monster Baron Nashor, so the next team fight would a a snap for them should they not be able to finish in time. Jinx and Darius stood in their fountain waiting for their health and mana to replenish.

" We're not going to win this, are we? " Darius dejectedly told her.

"Don't be like that," Jinx snapped back, "Look, we have fought well, and we may lose this, but I don't want you giving up. It's not over till it's over."

"Sure, but what can we do?"

Jinx sighed, then added, " Besides, this is Helen's fifth attempt to get out of Bronze. I'm willing to keep going for her as well as for the rest of our team".

"So your Summoner's a girl?" Darius said, surprised since female Summoners were uncommon. "She's pretty good from what I've seen her do with you. Ok then, count me in. For all the good it'll do."

"Look, bottom lane is pushed out. I'll go there and backdoor. You stay here and defend our Nexus."

"I'll try. Go for it."

So she did. By the time she reached the minions, however, the enemy team had converged around the Baron pit. Jinx launched her Super Mega Death Rocket in an attempt to kill someone there. Then she started attacking the inner turret. The rocket hit Mordekaiser straight on, but instead of killing someone, the blast of the rocket dealt the final blow to Baron Nashor, so Jinx and her team recieved the buff, while the enemy team went hungry.

Still, they weren't about to give up. As Jinx destroyed the inhibitor turret and moved on to the inhibitor itself, they started appearing in their base. The enemy team made straight for the inhibitor, realising Jinx was setting up a base race and ignoring the rest of her team. Darius, however, did not. He went for Caitlyn first as she would deal the most damage to the others.

"An enemy has been slain", sounded across the map.

As Jinx finished the inhibitor, Darius turned his attention to Wukong, the second largest threat to the Nexus.

"**Double kill !**", sounded out.

By now the enemy team had taken down and was getting sick of the pesky Darius with his double kill. No longer caring about the Nexus, they went straight for him now. They attacked him and drove him back to the fountain. With quick thinking, though, Darius turned around, hooked them on his axe and pulled them into the fountain. The Nexus Obelisk fired and killed Mordekaiser with Swain and Soraka managing to escape the Obelisk's range.

"**Triple kill !**", Jinx heard as she destroyed one of the Nexus turrets.

" YES! " ; echoed Helen's voice in Jinx's head.

Swain was out of mana from the the chase to the fountain and being the largest threat, the now fully healed Darius went for him. Swain could do little as Darius attacked him without mercy. Soraka's heal came too late for him.

"**Quadrakill !**", sounded as Jinx brought down the other Nexus turret.

Soraka stood no chance against Darius, so she kept attacking the Nexus with the two nexus turrets down. Darius wounded her a lot faster than she could heal herself however.

"**PENTAKILL !**"

The enemy's Nexus was already at half health, but the super minions raged on Jinx. She was on 1000 HP already, however she didn't stop shooting the Nexus.

" HELEN I'M ABOUT TO GET EXECUTED! "

Two seconds later, both Jinx and her team were treated to the amazing and believed-to-be-impossible sound of the enemy Nexus exploding, winning them the match against all odds.


	2. Chapter 2

Helen couldn't believe her ears when she heard that sweet sound, or her eyes when her sight was drawn to the image of the exploding Nexus. Never before in her life had she seen an ending so tense and spectacular. The same could be said for the rest of her team. The Summoners of Warwick and Morgana flung themselves at the Summoner of Darius, whose name was Matthew. Brohugs ensued.

Ezreal's Summoner, a blondie, went over to Helen and muttered: "I'm...sorry about the raging. You were right, you should never surrender."

"Ah, that's fine. We won, that's what counts!"

And Helen joined the hug fest with the other girls. Then the door of the Summoning Chamber flew open, and Jinx rushed in, followed by the other champions.

Jinx made straight for Helen, and shouted out to her: "Well, guess who got promoted! The tribunal told me to give this to you right away. Hope you'll enjoy it!"

With this, Jinx opened her hand and there lay Helen's Silver sigil. The dream she'd worked for for over a year. Hesitantly, she took it, removed her Bronze sigil, and pinned on the new one. "It looks awesome on you," Jinx told her, "now you won't have to deal with the likes of that Ezreal fool who dares to call herself a Summoner."

" Hell yeah! Finally! And of course it looks awensome on me. Everything I do or wear looks awensome on me. Thanks for not giving up by the way. I don't know what to say."

"No need for that. You earned it. HEY EVERYONE!" Jinx yelled, now turning to their group in the room. "My friend here has finally left Bronze. I'd say we celebrate that. PARTY TIME!"

Later that night, the Summoners and Champions went to the tavern the League provided as amusement for the two groups. They kept on recapping the match, both teams recalling and then joking about the best moments of the match. Obviously everyone had stopped trying to explain the event to the main drunkard in the tavern, Gragas, several hours ago. But everyone else was following the whole thing with rapt attention. Obviously the stars of that night were Jinx, for her backdoor, Darius, for his Penta, and their Summoners, Helen and Matthew. And as usual, Darius was showing off in his way, remembering the others that he's one of the best tanks in the League, while drinking and handwrestling with his fellows.

At this point it should be mentioned that it is, although not unprecedented, rather uncommon for Summoners and Champions to be seen together outside of the Summoner's room from where the Champions are controlled on the Rift or the other maps. This party, aside from the aformentioned conversation, was no different. The Chanmpions sat on one end of the hall, the Summoners at the other. And very little seemed about to change that. But in a twist of fate, the door opened and a Champion stepped in. Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Renowned throughout the League for her foxy wits and...well...foxy looks too. So foxy in fact, that after her entered a young man, oogling all over Ahri, eyes fixated on her sexily swaying hips.

That was when the trouble started.

"Hang on," came from one of the Summoner tables, "that's my boyfriend Dan. What did you do to him, Ahri?"

"Your boyfriend? Looks like he's my boyfriend now. Sorry, sweetheart, but we can't run from our heart's desires," Ahri replied, in a voice smeared thick with lust.

"You will let him go this instant! I know you put him under your spell so drop it!" the girl Summoner shouted.

"Poor little girl. You should know better than to argue with a Champion. After all, there's a reason I get to be a Champion."

"Ahri, drop it," came from Helen at that point, "leave her be. And give her her boyfriend back."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't you, little monster. Maybe you could give Master Yi a few lessons, the way you pulled that off."

" Oh shut up and take your charm off the guy."

"Has your latest victory gone to your head? Seeing Darius achieving what you've always dreamt of did hit you pretty hard, didn't it? You're crazy if you think you can order me around out of the Rift. Besides, if Dan here left his girlfriend, I suppose he didn't really love her."

Ahri and Helen weren't really good friends, due to a Penta that the fox stole from her once. That day, Helen completly lost it and jumped on Ahri, pulling her hair and trying to slam Pow Pow on her head. Well, you know how girls fight. It was a hard time for Thresh, Yasuo, and Master Yi to pull her away. Luckily, the scored Ace gave them enough space to deal with the two raging girls.

"**WHAT**?" shouted the girl Summoner, "Take that back! You have no right..."

"Naïve little thing. Your precious Dan is mine now, and you're not going to change that."

"Ahri, come on," said Helen.

"Oh, what are you going to do, Helen, seduce him out of my charm? Good luck with that. "

"If that's what it takes," Helen answered with complete trust, her arms crossed, leaning on one leg.

By this time Ahri could feel the general opinion rising against her, even on the Champion side of the room.

"Oh fine, here you have him."

She lifted the charm and the boy fell to the ground. The girl rushed over to him.

Ahri walked over to Helen. "Look here, Helen. I respect you as much as anyone else in the room."

"Well, it's not exactly showing."

"Hear me out. I respect you, but don't think you can teach me about love. You know what.. Come, I'll buy you a drink."

Helen's group excused her, so she may be able to settle things up with foxy. After sitting down at the bar, Ahri continued: "Tell you what, let's play a game."

"I have a feeling this won't lead to any good," Helen muttered.

"We both go and try seduce some guys named by the other."

"Yep, right hunch," she thought, before saying: "And if I say no?"

"Then the girl will be losing her boyfriend again," Ahri said as a pink glow appeared in her normally golden eyes, while sporting a mischievous smile.

"Very well. Who would you have me do in?"

Both girls suggested several Champions. Ahri got Yasuo, Garen, Talon and Nasus, while she messed up Helen's turn with people like Aatrox, Zac and Jax. By the time Ahri's last suggesting turn came, Helen had given up hope altogether.

"Ok, so who's it going to be now? Ziggs? Zed? Xer'Ath? Vel'Koz? Uhmmm...some alien I've never heard of before?"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Ahri said, with the smirk she wore so well, "it's going to be Urgot."

Helen half panicked when she heard that name from Ahri. "_URGOT_? That fucked up creep? With his body half stitched together and his six..." Helen halted her ranting there, almost retching at the thought of being anywhere within 10 yards of Urgot. "No. I refuse. Give me a goddamn human for a change. I've picked all the good guys for you and you just shove monsters down my throat."

Ahri felt a pang of guilt at that. "Ok, ok, calm down. I've been hard on you, true. I'll get you someone nice this time, ok?" Ahri looked around the tavern, finger on her chin in that cute way. "Uhmmm...oh, you'll love this one! Darius."

That only slightly stymied Helen's dread. "No. I mean, seriously?"

"Don't be picky now. He's one of the most handsome people in this place."

Helen wasn't so optimistic. "Yeah, you're right, but...I can't. I hold him in the highest of respect. I can't just barge in and invade his personal space. I spoke to him earlier, definitely not the easy picks I got you."

"I have no doubt that you could do it. You're a lovely girl, pretty and all. You're sexier than you realize, you know. Besides you know that what you just said is complete nonsense."

Jinx had overheard them throughout this time and chose that moment to enter the conversation. "She's got that right. I mean, I got Draven to go out with me at one point, so why not his brother?"

"You did? Why didn't you tell me? Still, you probably spent the whole night listening to how 'awesome' he is, didn't you?" Helen said, "Besides, they're completely different people. Darius isn't like Draven at all."

"Doesn't mean you couldn't try," Jinx countered.

"I thought you were on my side," replied Helen, a little embarassed.

"Look here, sweetheart," said Ahri, "I'm sure someone as sweet as you can seduce Darius, if it only took someone as ugly as Jinx to do in Draven."

"HEY!" shouted Jinx before being interrupted by a very smug voice, saying: "Did I hear someone say 'Draven'?"

With these lines, the most arrogant of the Champions started moving over. The (nonetheless quite handsome) Glorious Executioner, Draven.

"A beautiful word, wouldn't you agree, ladies? I know, I think so too. No wonder you're so urged to say it out loud."

"Draven, please, we have no time for you right now," said Ahri, only to be answered with coarse laughter.

"Everyone has time for some Draven, ladies. I do, anyway. Now, why don't you tell Draven what's the bother?"

And so Ahri, Helen and Jinx recalled the conversation they had earlier.

"Well, I agree," Draven said after some consideration, "Trust me, my brother's a typical tough skin, soft center. I can see you seducing him, and him falling for you. You've been in the League, for, what, two years now? I've seen you and you've grown into a beautiful woman for being only sixteen. Of course Darius is no match for his magnificent younger brother, if you get my meaning."

"I'm seventeen. And thank you, Draven, but I'm still not doing it," said Helen, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Your loss. Anyway, Draven has to take his leave now. I've got places to go and me to see." With that he left.

After a short pause, Ahri said: "That's how you got him to date you, right, Jinx?"

"Yeah, it is."

Ahri then turned to Helen and said: "So, I suppose I win then, Helen?"

"Yeah, you do.."

"Thank you. That was all I needed to know." She started towards the door, then turned, "By the way, the girl can keep her Dan. He's more trouble than he's worth." And on those words she left.

Helen turned to Jinx and mumbled: "That bitch."

Jinx returned the look and told her: "You have _no_ idea."


	3. Chapter 3

Darius left soon after Draven. Bidding everyone good night, he stepped out into the chill night air and headed towards the Champion residences. The Champions' housing was provided by the League, whereas Summoners came and went; the League had a hotel for Summoners on a short visit, and most Summoners lived near the League complex. Darius and Draven, being brothers, chose to share rooms when they joined the League as Champions. With Darius being a former Noxian army general and Draven an executioner, they were often referred to together as the Blood Brothers.

Darius found Draven waiting for him not that far from the tavern.

"What was the mess in the bar all about? You were closer than me."

"Long story, short, Ahri came in with some Summoner's boyfriend and they quarrelled over it. That Helen girl joined the fray and got Ahri to leave her. Ahri then suggested a contest of sorts."

"Typical Ahri. What kind of contest?"

"A seduction contest. They suggested some Champions to each other, but in the end Ahri told Helen to try to do you in. Jinx agreed with Ahri. I did too, honestly."

"You have got to be kidding. Don't tell me you thought she was my type."

"Hey, I saw you looking at her during that match. Don't think I wasn't watching you. At the surrender attempt, remember?"

"Well..."

Darius hesitated, before Draven continued ranting: "Looked clear enough to me. And the chat you two had after the match...you looked good together. I'm pretty sure she's your type."

"Just, shut up, will you, Draven?" Darius told him, then snapped out moments later, "But first, why didn't she do it anyway? "

" She said it was a matter of respect. But I don't totally believe her. Do you?"

"We're almost at the appartment and I will hear no more of it."

"Fine then, but I'm telling you, I can see something happening between both of you."

Darius just sighed and ignored Draven for the rest of the walk. And the night.

* * *

><p>Helen could hardly sleep out of excitement of being Silver. Over a year had passed since she was able to participate in a competitive level, and throught this time she had risen up from Bronze IV, where she had started, only to strand at Bronze I and fail four promotion series, each of five matches. Finally, she had made it to Silver. The following day, she went to the League complex at eight in the morning, which was incredibly early for her doing.<p>

It should be said that although out of the five roles, she was best at AD carry, she enjoyed playing support and jungler from time to time. She arrived and thought herself too excited to be an adequate marksman. Instead she opted to play her favorite jungler, Vi, the Piltover Enforcer. As she entered the Summoner room she was startled to find the Summoner of Darius in her previous match on the opposing team. And sure enough, while the chosen Champions were being Summoned is became clear that he would be controlling Darius again.

With Helen playing as Vi, she was joined by Irelia in top, Zed in mid, and Twitch and Alistar in bot, facing Darius top, Malzahar mid, Tristana and Lux bot and Evelynn jungle. With what was according to what she had seen previously the best Darius player in the world, along with their strong team composition, she feared her first Silver match might come to her first Silver loss as well, but as it turns out, her team ended up winning, with Darius in possesion of the only positive score.

Helen's ganks almost always resulted in a kill. And it was with her score of three kills and one death that she made what she would later consider her best play of the match.

Darius was the only one who had won his lane and destroyed a turret, and at 5 kills he was a force to be reckoned with. He was fighting Irelia, and dominating the lane. Helen finished her golems and rushed over to top lane. However, Irelia was low enough for Darius to ult her, and so he did, getting his sixth kill.

Happy with his domination, he prepared to recall not so far from his turret, except that Vi managed to get her ult off on Darius seconds earlier, interrupting his dunk. Darius got knocked to the wall, and together with Helen on Vi, they bought Darius down.

" Shut down. "

" Haha! Late.. But better than never. And as I always say: If you hit a wall, hit it hard! "

The fact that she was sniped by a Lux ult while recalling put a downer on Helen's euforia, but she was still proud of engaging Darius without a single damage being layed on her from him.

Sadly, her Vi game proved the only victory for her that day. Playing as Vi and Jinx intermittently, a combination of Summoners leaving because of unforseen circumstances, feeding by her teammates and, it must be said, more bad plays from her than she wanted. When she left after five-something games of this, she was dejected and frustrated, keeping on thinking what went wrong to lose so many games in a row.

"Let's see, first there was that Xin Zhao that got 2 kills in mid and top and then steamrolled us bot. Little I could there. Then there was that Nami who kept dying to Lucian. After two deaths she should have known to stay behind the minions for the Thresh hooks."

Well, I suppose you get the idea of her thoughts.

"I wish Hyper was back from his holiday already. Good supports are hard to come by."

Hyper referred to her main bot lane partner, who she had played with often. Sadly, he was on a three-week vacation and she had to do without.

She stopped at the tavern, finding it empty aside from Gragas. Drinks in the tavern for Champions were free, but Summoners had to pay for their consumption. Don't worry, Summoners were paid to do their jobs, and the tavern was the only restaurant within an hour's walk from the League complex. The money earned there was used solely for maintenance of the complex as the main contractors for the tavern delivered the drinks and food for free (Or they would risk having 120 Champions turned against them).

Gragas was a drunkard and spent most of his time not on the Fields, but in the tavern. He even slept there most of the time. Well, he was now anyway.

Helen approached the counter and ordered a drink, waking Gragas while doing so.

"Gragas? Wake up dude."

"Uhhhh...I keep forgetting there's a reason Drunken Rage has a cooldown," he uttered, "Ah, screw it. " Then he noticed that Helen was the one to wake him up. "I didn't think anyone came in at this hour. Least of all Summoners," he said, the booze still thickening his voice. "Hey, aren't you that girl who...ehm..." said Gragas as he struggled to remember, "...ehm...did that backdoor thing and got a penta doing it?"

"Yeah," Helen answered, happy to have someone to talk to, even if it was a drunk fat guy, "Though the Penta wasn't mine."

"Well, what are you doing here at this hour?" He said, moving over to her, "I rarely see anyone here at..." He looked at the clock, "... _3PM_."

"Let's just say that the backdoor glory is over. I lost five games in a row and_ none_ of those were my fault. "

"Ah well, shit happens. I bet you're here for a drink to put that miserable day behing you, eh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Just one little glass though."

Gragas held out his hand.

"What?" Helen asked.

"Money before booze, girl. You know the drill."

"Ok, ok, let me just find my..." that was when she realized she had forgotten her wallet at home in the excitement.

"Ah shit, forgot my wallet."

"Then I can't help you, girl. No money, no drinks."

"Oh come on, Gragas, I'll pay you in a few hours."

"Nope, I need that money in advance."

She banged her fist on the bar, then crawled to the counter. "**PLEASE GRAGY**!"

"No means no."

She was about to give up when something flashed into her mind. "Hey Gragas." He grunted an answer. "Do you accept any currency other than gold?"

"Depends on the currency."

"I might have_ something_ you're interested in," she said, getting closer to him, biting her lower lip.

"I wasn't talking about that sort of currency," Gragas protested.

" Ah come on. Even people like Aatrox and Jax fell for my charm. "

"**No**, girl, it isn't going to happen. If I gave free drinks to every girl who tried that I'd be out of business by now." Dejected, Helen backed off and just slumped.

"Nice try though," a voice beside her said.

Saying that she was startled would be an understatement. She almost fell off her chair and managed to stay put only by grabbing the bar as she fell. Aided by the voice's owner she got back on her chair and when she looked at him she saw the black eyes belonging to Darius.

"Scared you?"

"Kind of... I'm not hurt, so its fine."

"What were you pulling with Gragas there?"

"I forgot my wallet and I had no change. Never seen anyone so hungry for gold."

"You know how he is. When he needs gold he's always sober. Ahri's contest did effect you huh?"

" Draven told you, did he? "

" Who else would? "

"Well, what Ahri said did come to mind. That I'm sexier than I think. Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought only Gragas would be here at this hour," Helen said.

Darius asked the same thing back.

"Well, I had a bad day. Lost five games in a row. I just got too fed up."

"How'd you lose them?"

"See, that's the problem. None of them were my fault. Just people leaving, feeding and bad plays."

"That does suck," Darius said, and after a brief pause, "Let me just buy you that drink."

"You would?"

"I don't joke easily, Helen. Besides, noone as good as you should have that kind of misfortune."

"Thanks. I wouldn't have thought you gave compliments like that."

"They're not really compliments. I'm just stating facts."

"Still, thanks. But you didn't tell me why are you here?"

"Nothing, Draven's just being his usual insufferable self."

"Tell me about it."

They just sat there for a while, until Helen finished her drink and bid her regards to Darius.

"Well, thank you so much for the drink. I do feel better now."

"No big deal, it's the same for me."

"No, really, I owe you one."

"Then bring your wallet next time," he said, granting her a smile as she left the place.

The silence that followed was interrupted, once again, by Gragas's alcohol-induced snoring.


End file.
